Helio says hello to Manhattan

Monday, January 8, 2007

HELIO, a new mobile phone company targeting Internet-obsessed youths, has signed a 10-year lease for its first Manhattan store. The Los Angeles-based company plans to open a 5,500-square-foot shop this spring at 622 Broadway, between East Houston and Bleecker streets.

A joint venture between Internet service provider Earthlink and Korean telecommunications firm SK Telecom, Helio sells phones designed to keep users connected to their friends. Its mobile devices offer quick access to social networking site MySpace.com as well as a global positioning tool that alerts users when they are in the same area as their friends.

The NoHo store, the company's fifth location, will mark the beginning of an aggressive expansion plan.

"We're going to rapidly open stores across the country in 2007," says a Helio spokesman.

The Lansco Corp. negotiated the Broadway deal for Helio, and Newmark Knight Frank Retail represented landlord Yuco Management. The property owners were pleased to land the new mobile phone player.

"It's the newest technology - kind of the wave of the future," says Jeffrey Roseman, a Newmark broker who worked on the deal. "It's a great, young market down there."

The asking rent was about $300 per square foot for the ground floor.

-ELIZABETH BUTLER

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